CALL FOR CATALOG ESSAYS
Call for essays to be published in the catalog for “Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) Granny Squared” installation
Deadline: September 7th, 2013
CAFAM Granny Squared is a participatory public art project organized by the knit graffiti collective Yarn Bombing Los Angeles (YBLA) to cover the facade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles, CA in crocheted granny squares May 25th –September 14th, 2013. YBLA is seeking 1000-1500 word essays exploring topics related to the dynamics of this project for a catalog to be self-published in early 2014. For more info on YBLA and the project please explore this website, our facebook page and feel free to contact us with specific questions.
Potential topics of investigation include but are not limited to history of the granny square; crochet as “women’s work”; craft vs. fine art; craft in the digital age; street art; ephemeral public art; self initiated public art projects; civic art vs. public art; intersection of social practice and public art; community building through art; collaborative art practices; authorship in collaborative art making; the internet as an organizing medium; geopolitics of community based art.
To summarize CAFAM Granny Squared, in October 2012 YBLA put out a call for 5 inch granny squares in specific colors to cover the museum in a particular design. By March over 500 crafters from 49 states and 25 countries joined to crochet 14,000 squares, double the amount needed for the project. Every step of the project's progress was documented on YBLA’s website and on facebook. Local participants met at the museum once a month to work collectively. While some participants were seasoned crafters, others learned to crochet specifically for this project. In the end, the project brought together a community of artists and crafters who otherwise might not have had access to exhibit their work in a museum.
On a conceptual level, the project questions the boundaries between art and craft, use scale and color to play with artistic, architectural and institutional identities. YBLA suggests a parallel between how the Craft and Folk Art Museum is dwarfed by the grandiose structures and other museums across the street on Museum Row, and how craft is dwarfed by traditional notions of “high art”. To deconstruct this dynamic, YBLA developed a design in brightly colored, oversized granny squares and other colossal graphic patterns to visually turn CAFAM into a dollhouse, thus "shrinking" it even more and making a commentary on artistic and institutional identities associated with craft, a lesser art form, by manipulating architecture, often regarded as the highest art form.
After de-installation, the project will enter its second phase where squares will be sewn into blankets and distributed to the residents of Skid Row through partner organizations around the holidays.
YBLA will be happy to provide interested parties with further information on the project upon request or offer feedback on 200 word abstracts received by August 7th, 2013. Submitting an abstract is not mandatory. Each author may submit multiple essays. We will not be able to publish all submissions. Essays will be selected based on relevancy to the YBLA’s practice and the CAFAM Granny Squared installation in particular. For more information please contact YBLA at yarnbombing18 (at) gmail (dot) com or www.yarnbombinglosangeles.com.
Deadline: September 7th, 2013
CAFAM Granny Squared is a participatory public art project organized by the knit graffiti collective Yarn Bombing Los Angeles (YBLA) to cover the facade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) in Los Angeles, CA in crocheted granny squares May 25th –September 14th, 2013. YBLA is seeking 1000-1500 word essays exploring topics related to the dynamics of this project for a catalog to be self-published in early 2014. For more info on YBLA and the project please explore this website, our facebook page and feel free to contact us with specific questions.
Potential topics of investigation include but are not limited to history of the granny square; crochet as “women’s work”; craft vs. fine art; craft in the digital age; street art; ephemeral public art; self initiated public art projects; civic art vs. public art; intersection of social practice and public art; community building through art; collaborative art practices; authorship in collaborative art making; the internet as an organizing medium; geopolitics of community based art.
To summarize CAFAM Granny Squared, in October 2012 YBLA put out a call for 5 inch granny squares in specific colors to cover the museum in a particular design. By March over 500 crafters from 49 states and 25 countries joined to crochet 14,000 squares, double the amount needed for the project. Every step of the project's progress was documented on YBLA’s website and on facebook. Local participants met at the museum once a month to work collectively. While some participants were seasoned crafters, others learned to crochet specifically for this project. In the end, the project brought together a community of artists and crafters who otherwise might not have had access to exhibit their work in a museum.
On a conceptual level, the project questions the boundaries between art and craft, use scale and color to play with artistic, architectural and institutional identities. YBLA suggests a parallel between how the Craft and Folk Art Museum is dwarfed by the grandiose structures and other museums across the street on Museum Row, and how craft is dwarfed by traditional notions of “high art”. To deconstruct this dynamic, YBLA developed a design in brightly colored, oversized granny squares and other colossal graphic patterns to visually turn CAFAM into a dollhouse, thus "shrinking" it even more and making a commentary on artistic and institutional identities associated with craft, a lesser art form, by manipulating architecture, often regarded as the highest art form.
After de-installation, the project will enter its second phase where squares will be sewn into blankets and distributed to the residents of Skid Row through partner organizations around the holidays.
YBLA will be happy to provide interested parties with further information on the project upon request or offer feedback on 200 word abstracts received by August 7th, 2013. Submitting an abstract is not mandatory. Each author may submit multiple essays. We will not be able to publish all submissions. Essays will be selected based on relevancy to the YBLA’s practice and the CAFAM Granny Squared installation in particular. For more information please contact YBLA at yarnbombing18 (at) gmail (dot) com or www.yarnbombinglosangeles.com.
